Last night’s Law and Order: SVU revolved around a gay NFL quarterback who was accidentally outed after his longtime boyfriend was murdered. In the show, the quarterback (who was touted as “the best in the league”, think Tom Brady or Peyton Manning) was being chased by angry fans and beat down within hours of the news breaking. There was also repeated talk that his career would be over and that any future endorsement oppurtunities would be gone. In the end of the episode, the quarterback was forced to retire because “the team docs thought he had suffered too many concussions”, with a subtle implication that he was being forced out because he was gay.
Personally, I think this is not how the reaction to the first gay football player would be in 2008.
Gay or not, any team in the league would kill for a quarterback of Brady or Manning’s caliber at the peak of their career.
Second of all, he was outed by a talk radio host (a Howard Stern type) who repeatedly referred to him on air as a “faggot.” No way, would never happen.
Third, there are tons of gay-themed magazines and TV channels, not only would his endorsements not disappear, they might even increase (again, like Brady or Manning, he was pretty good looking).
Finally, the tide is turning quickly on the acceptance of gay people into “mainstream culture.” Look at teens today, being gay has lost almost all of its stigma. Sure, you’ll never be able to eradicate the prejudice completely, but being gay is not the career killer in sports it would have been even five years ago.
I agree mostly. A Manning or Brady level player would likely suffer some loss of endorsements, esp if they were endorsing the “manly” type products. They might find some new opportunities though, as you mentioned.
The fans and other players though? As long as the outed player kept winning, all would be forgotten, or at least a lid kept on it.
Opposing fans would have a field day with it (can you imagine the signs in the stands?), but winning is the ultimate trump card and could shut them up somewhat.
I think that it would be forgotten quite quickly if the player didn’t draw attention to it and kept playing at a high level. Players have done far worse (Leonard Little, Ray Lewis, etc, etc) and managed to repair their reputations with good play.
I didn’t see the episode. However, I do think that there is still a great deal of homophobia both amongst the athletes and the fan base, more than the general populace.
There was quite the brouhaha around Mike Piazza when rumors of homosexuality were swirling about. There exists a subset of fans that are stupidly rabid, and AM radio not only caters to these idiots, but fuels their idiocy like throwing gasoline on a flame. These fans have, overall, been very…disapproving…of overt homosexuality in sports. The more liberal of them were of the mindset “keep it in the closet where it belongs.”
I don’t think think the media would react negatively. Fan response would be mixed (don’t think opposing fans wouldn’t seize on that during smack talk), but I think the biggest concern for players is the locker room, which is still a very homophobic culture – a homophobia which is complicated even more by the Evangelical religious culture in a lot of locker rooms. We’ve heard professional athletes saying they wouldn’t want a gay teammate. Even some coaches are openly homophobic. Tony Dungy, for instance (who is generally one of the best liked and most respected coaches in the NFL) has not only publicly oppose gay rights, but actually aligned himself with James Dobson’s loathesome Focus on the Family organization.
There are some supportive sports stars too. For example, when Shaq was asked how he’d react to a a gay teammate, he good naturedly said, “I guess I’d have to protect him.” I thik it’s going to take more guys like Shaq – who have the ability to set tones in locker rooms – to make gay athletes feel like they can come out. I think the response of other players is something they fear more than from the media or the fans.
Your cite shows four instances of murdered gay teens in the last seven years. In two of the instances, their deaths were linked to their orientation. But in two, the motive for the murder is unknown. And only one of the instances actually showed a gay teen being killed by another teen.
As I said, there will always be people who are homophobic, but it is definitely more accpeted today.
What part of the country do you live in? Geography plays a role here. I don’t think there are a lot of openly gay kids in small towns or in the Bible Belt.
Of course, getting back to the subject at hand, there aren’t any sports teams in small towns either. All of them operate in large cities where gay people are much more accepted.
Agreed. Hell, we have same sex couples going to the prom at my school. There’s no way in hell anyone can reasonably say that the stigma hasn’t been lifted somewhat. Gone? Of course not. But lessened? Absolutely.
Which is why I said I think the issue is in the locker rooms, not the fans or the media.
Also, while those teams are generally located in big cities, their fan bases are drawn from all over their respective regions, which includes rural areas and small towns. I don’t think there would be a large impact on ticket sales and merhandise, but there would probably be some.
It may be a positive impact for the first player, if that player is also exceptionally good. Fans of pro sports love a winner, so if he was good enough I think most fans wouldn’t be to vocal in their opposition. There would also be an influx of people who become fans of the team specifically because of the gay role model. The second player to come out probably would not benefit from this as much, but I can’t say that the net reaction to the first player would necessarily be negative.
What evidence would you accept that gay teens still suffer from homophobia in this country? Just tell me so I can provide it without you declaring it insufficient.
Okay, so your goal posts have now moved substantially. Mere harassment or difficultly due to being gay is not enough – it has to be that the gay teens have zero support from anyone. And even if forty-five percent of them said so, that still wouldn’t be enough. Also you seem to be shifting away from “gay teens don’t suffer stigma” to “they suffer less now than in the past”, which is obviously true, but irrelevant to a discussion of the absolute amount suffered today.
If not for social stigma, how do you explain the gay teen suicide rate being about four times higher than the straight teens? God cleaning up his mistakes, maybe?
Martina Navatrilova mentions that she lost a lot of endorsements because she is gay (cite), and that was in a much less male-oriented sport. And David Kopay also believes he is not considered for coaching jobs because he came out.
I suspect an active player who is openly gay isn’t going to make as much in endorsements than he would if he stayed in the closet. I doubt he would be hounded out of the league, unless it turned out he was HIV-positive, but it would be rough.
But the locker room jokes would just write themselves.
Cute, make me out to look like a religious bigot. Now I remember why I don’t like interacting with you in GD.
Besides, this thread IS NOT ABOUT GAY TEENS. I just used their increased acceptance by other teens as a data point in why society at large would be more accepting of a gay professional athlete. That is what this thread is about.